St Valery sur Somme

St Valery sur Somme sits on a limestone promontory in the heart of the bay where the canal maritime heads inland to connect with Abbeville.  St Valerie  was visited by both William the Conqueror and Joan of Arc. Today the former medieval city with cobbled streets,has been given over to tourism.

The old town quay must have been a great place to sit out bad weather, the channel turns left and out into the bay

 Looking inland toward the canal the town marina, with the huge tides and associated strong currents in the areas not to mention the many sand banks and shallows it must be a challenging area to sail, probably like north Norfolk coast or the Severn or Dee estuaries in the UK.

The Somme Bay railway has a terminus in St Valerie, originally built during the Epoque, traditional carriages are drawn by  steam locomotives connecting to the nearby towns of Le Crotoy, Noyelles-sur-Mer, Saint-Valery-sur-Somme and Cayeux-sur-Mer for tourists who enjoy the quaint charm of Victorian travel during a tour of the seaside resorts

 

Unusual launch

Poor photo which was taken pretty much at the end of range of my ancient iPhone, the bows which can just be made out, were almost square, presumably the underwater profile was different.

 The stern suggested some kind of electric propulsion, it was moving along a good pace so seemed effective.

Remembrance Day

 Is still alive and well, there was a good turn out for the parade on Sunday led by local Scouts and Guides from the two villages Hamble and Netley.

Around the area the local knitters (actually crochet) have been decorating local post boxes, above classic RAF pilot and nurse are brilliantly represented.

The door to St Paul's on the green at Sarisbury, a few of us gathered outside by the war memorial with a small party of children from Sarisbury school, the Mayor, local Councillors, armed forces and police.

 

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: 

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. 

At the going down of the sun and in the morning 

We will remember them. 

Laurence Binyon, 1869 - 1943

Working Boat at Itchenor

Looks like a serious piece of kit, presumably for maintenance of the many harbour moorings

 

Hurdel Baie de Somme

Located at the end of a spit in the Baie de Somme, the area is part of a nature reserve, the last vestiges of sea side holiday making and the casino at  disappear as you head north east from Cayeax sur Mer along the trail in the sand dunes.

With tide out there are vast stretches of empty beach, I didn't check tides for Hurdel but just along the coast to. the west where we were staying the rise was 8 meters, presumably similar here with some very strong tidal currents going in and out of the estuary.

The remains of a massive gun emplacement form the war, presumably the tidal erosion has undercut the foundations over the years leaving it like stranded wreckage form a Start Wars movie.

The village is still active with some fishing boats,pleasure boats and yachts tucked further up the river and day trip boats taking visitors out to see the seals with

 To give a little scale to the gun emplacement
 

Dayboats

 I do have a thing for day boats and this is an interesting example it looks like a Swallow Boats Bayraider and apologies if I have that wrong, but a very worthy modern successor to the original Drascombe.

 That comment might have Drascombe aficionado's rushing to the comment  section, although probably few if any read this blog. Both are great boats but personally I like the greater sailing and especially upwind performance of the Bayraider, the kick up rudder while not essential just makes life easier and I much as I like the looks of the original Lugger personally I think the Bayraider has it on looks especially as seen here in navy blue with white spars.

Swamwick Hard clear up

 The council has served a notice of a clean up down at Swanwick hard which requires all dinghy owners to remove their dinghies or they will be removed and presumably scrapped

 They did a similar thing a couple of years back, as I recall legitimate owners removed their boats for a couple of weeks and then were able to return with a registered number. Then as usual over the years a few unregistered and or derelict dinghies turned up, so maybe time to sort things out.

Portuguese Racing Sardine Club

Nestling in the heart of the Hampshire countryside, at what is reputed to be the source of the Hamble river are the headquarters of the Portuguese Racing Sardine Club

 Given its location at the accepted source of the River Hamble  racing can now only be held on extremely high tides, perhaps an effect of global warming, excessive dredging or marina development on the river. 

Alternatively it may be that the headquarters are also the gents toilets at the Hampshire Bowman pub, the decline may be just impact of the UK nanny state causing increased sobriety?

 

Underwater crop circles ?

Maybe should have saved this for April 1st, extreme low water are these examples of the mud version of the mysterious crop circles or perhaps a damp version of the Atacama geolyphs?

 

Busy day at Keyhaven

Despite the poor summer weather there were variously good turn outs for events at Keyhaven with fleets from Hurst Castle SC and Keyhaven YC bustling for space

I forget the event but there was a varied fleet ranging from SCOWs and Lasers and upward in size.

 

Nelson's other Column

Set back slightly from the top of the chalk ridge that is of Portsdown Hill overlooking Portsmouth Harbour is the original Nelson's column.

Built in 1807 to 1808 as a monument to the famous Admiral, his success at the Battle of Trafalgar during which he was mortally wounded by musket fire from an nearby French ship, the column also provided a useful sea mark for navigators.

Designed originally by John Groves the column stands 28.3 meters / 92 feet 10.5 inches high standing on the 300 feet contour line, funding of £3,000 was raised. by the donation of 2 days pay from all who took part in the battle, which considering what they had gone through during the battle seems a little onerous.

the column was rebuilt in 1899 but retains the original bust of Nelson which looks out over the harbour

I confess that despite having lived in the area for over 25 years I didn't know of it's existence until my recent visit.

Miss Ningi

I've featured Miss Ningi before, she's a Cara 16 a nice open gaff rigged day sailer designed by John Shuttleworth, sadly all too few were built.

Seen over at Birdham Pool it's an ideal boat for pottering around the large natural harbour.

 

Folk Boat Friday

 Nice example of a wooden, I think Scandinavian Folk Boat waiting on the pontoon at the Royal Lymington YC.

Destination Dieppe

We hadn't really considered Dieppe as a destination, having last been through there from the Newhaven ferry some 40 years ago, but since we were staying just up the coast we thought we'd take a look around the town.

 

The ferries stopped running in the. early 2000's  and the inner port is now a marina surrounded by cafes, bars and restaurants. At the far end of town stood on a high promontory is the Musee Chateau de Dieppe, well worth a visit and with great views over the town and out across the bay.
 

Nearby we came across this place, it's not clear if it's a shop or a museum or a mixture since a lot of items were for sale, some really interesting stuff.

The old town is given over to a lot of boutique shops catering to tourists with an eye to high fashion items.

Some old buildings dating back right up to the ramparts of the chateau, in the center I think that's the Church of St Jacques, twelfth century gothic which was a stage for pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela - the modern day Camino.

Clearly the local classic boat restoration club has it's work cut out with this one.

Interior of St Jacques are these amazing crarved stone screens to many of the side chapels, which are an indication of the wealth of the port in former years.

Not all working boats are waiting restoration, this local lugger was operating day sailing.

 As well and the inevitable tourist cafes and bars, there were more than a few authentic places to eat clearly catering to locals, and as you would expect really good fish menus. All in all a very pleasant surprise and well worth a visit.

Early Morning

For a variety of reasons I've stopped going out early along the river in the past few years, more or less since the dreaded COVID started, but with a fine start to the day and rain in prospect by mid morning I decided to get out relatively early.

The sun was coming up over the trees on the east shore of the river lighting up all the boats, the river was still and reflected the hulls and masts perfectly.

Alas the weather was coming in sooner than forecast as can be seen in the western sky, shortly after getting home the "heavens opened".

Appropriately named "Storm Chaser"

 

Thames stroll

Arriving early for some meetings I took a short stroll along the Thames Path along the river, the Thames at this part is tidal with strong currents on both the ebb and flow.

Docklands as it's name suggest are the old London docks, the ships are long since gone as are many of the wharves and warehouses, replaced by expensive flats and at the huge mega bank towers.

At low tide layers of history are occasionally revealed, here showing the remains of at least 3 previous wharves and who knows what other debris, some of those rocks would be from a recent demolition or left over from the building of the Tower of London who knowes.

A hundred years ago or less this creek would have been full of small lighters and other craft, dried out on the mud, unloading or loading. It's good to see some of the warehouses still preserved alongside the new flats.

I tried to find out some history of Molines Wharf, but other than the price of flats there wasn't much found by google, this stretch of the river has been docks and wharves since the time of Elizabeth I and Sir Francis Drake so probably some interesting history.

The Grapes, to echo the previous paragraph, has been a pub since 1583.

Finally I took a stroll around Limehouse basin, there's a lock to enter and leave dependent on the tide height out in the main river. Seems like quite a few live-aboard boats and certainly makes for a nice "pad" in London.

This is what you do if you live in a hi-rise but really want a garden with a view of the river, very neat and I imagine very expensive.

 

Festival de la Mar

Le Treport is seaport with a long history of fishing and more latterly tourism on the "Alabaster coast" of France. The town hosts a biannual event in July August each year to pay tribute to the sailors who have lost their lives at sea.

 The fishing fleet turned out dressed overall and decorated for the parade together with a navy vessel, the lifeboat and a few other large local craft out in the bay.

On return the fishing boats took up a water fight, drenching each other with their power hoses at close quarters in what what is clearly a regular and popular part of the festivity.

It wasn't long before the boats came close alongside the harbour wall to wash down the assembled festival goers. There was in all probability alcohol involved

It's clearly a major local event, the town was packed with visitors and locals on what was a perfect summer's day.